Sabin is the executive director of Plant with Purpose (formerly Floresta), a Christian anti-poverty, relief, and development agency, focused on the environment. To heal humanity’s relationship with creation, Plant with Purpose encourages reforestation and sustainable agriculture.
Sabin opens his book with a moving story about being lost in the hills of southern Haiti. His description of the poor, crowded, and ravaged world he saw is all the more heartbreaking since the destructive earthquake has brought more suffering to this unfortunate country and its people. While in Haiti he came to the realization that reforestation of the mountains was fundamental to restoring the earth for the poor people dependent on it. He knew God was calling him to this ministry.
He has traveled a long way since that revelation to understand how difficult his chosen mission is. As he and his colleagues came to understand, the poverty they saw was the result of broken relationships between human beings and the earth. Jesus said that the most important commandment was to love the Lord God with all our might. The second one was to love our neighbors as ourselves. Tending to Eden tells us that opportunities to be good Samaritans surround us, and the possibilities for acting on our compassion have never been greater. Yet, Sabin brings a serious understanding that aid workers are not “the saviors, Jesus is. “
How does stewardship inform how we treat the earth? Sabin makes the case that in recent times many of God’s people have lost sight of their stewardship role. “People ask me how we can choose between caring for the poor and caring for creation, as if they are mutually exclusive.”
His goal is that once we see the impact of environmental issues in the lives of poor people overseas, we will see more clearly the impact of these issues here at home, and the need to use sustainable agriculture in the US. He explores community forestry, sanitation, the role of animals in a healthy ecosystem, and microcredit and microfinance. Understanding the need for creation care leads us to see the bigger picture when it comes to human poverty, health, prosperity, and security. “When environmental restoration, economic opportunity, and discipleship combine, real transformation can take place.”
Sabin calls us to be witnesses to the degradation of our earth and for us to call for restoration. He says, “The world is full of people who call themselves Christians. Disciples are harder to find.” For Christians who want to be disciples, reading and practicing the message of Tending to Eden is a good beginning.
ALISON BENNETT is an elder at Saint Mark Church in Rockville, Md., where she leads the congregation’s Green Team for environmental stewardship.
